Sunday, April 1, 2012

So, we recently inherited a hope chest that was my grandmother's. It is a very pretty chest, but it was in pretty bad shape. Here are some of the before shots of it.

Lots of knicks and scratches. I think it is wood veneer on the front that is chipping off here at the bottom. So, we thought it would look pretty cool to try and do a distressed chalk paint finish in an aqua or turquoise color. Our inspiration was Miss Mustard Seed's Dresser done in Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Provence and Old White.

So we thought we'd give it a whirl. Here are some of the "in the middle" pictures:

Here are the after pictures. I have to say, we really like how it looks. At first, Rebecca thought is was too distressed. And sometimes I think it looks like it got shipwrecked, but now Rebecca really likes it and I do too.

Here's a close-up of the grain of the wood showing through the distressing. That part was so pretty, we wanted it to show through. I also think the keyhole looks so much cooler now that it is refinished.

So, that was our experiment in chalk paint. We love the finished product. Is my Grandma shaking her head (or her fists) in Heaven? I don't know....hopefully not.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

So, we decided to take our Tabletop display and turn it into a tablescape for Centsationalgirl's Homegood's Holiday Tablescape Challenge. We wanted to do this without buying anything new and since we are such casual people. (Like-paper plates at Thanksgiving casual-it was quite the challenge after all!)

So, here she is in all her glory. We went white, rustic and natural. And even though we usually are pretty into color for the Holidays, we really love this tablescape.

Because we don't have any formal napkins, these "vintage" style tea towels are perfect when casually tied with alternating twine and jute rope and bundled with our everyday silverware!

The centerpiece is a combination of white pitchers planted with a small evergreen, a tiny rosemary and a mystery desert fern (ok, I guess we did buy these, but for the whole holiday season, not just for the tablescape) and our old candles and candlesticks. The spindly candlesticks were spray painted Heirloom white, they used to be brown and "tuscan" in a previous life. We also incorporated the twine and jute to loosely wrap some of the candles and pitchers.

A close up of our perfectly simple place setting. And below you can see that we styled the bowls with the mugs and offsetting them from each place setting. Our guests will be either drinking hot chocolate or eggnogg. (Confession: we have no stemware.... Perhaps if we win that gift certificate......)

All in all we had fun styling and pretending that we're rustically fancy!

Sunday, November 27, 2011

This post is going to be about some of our Christmas decor. So obviously, the table top display is kind of a rip-off from that pinterest picture of the three pitchers with potted evergreens in them. But, to beef it up we added some cheapo target candles/candlesticks (all pillar candles and the two end candlesticks) and some Heirloom white spraypainted candle sticks.

The plants are from Home Depot, the small rosemary, the mini evergreen and the last one is a kind of fern grown here in AZ a lot. Don't know the name of it.

Here is just a set of three glitter and vine trees with a glade candle. They sit on top of a cabinet that we repainted in paris grey chalk paint and then distressed.

Here's Reba's favorite corner. She loves our garage sale end table (Spray painted white and with a World Market porcelain pull.) And then her two owls and a potted rosemary pruned into a Christmas tree. The lamp is from HomeGoods and the curtains are from Ikea....if anyone cares.

The kitchen table is topped with an heirloom table runner made by GG (Great Grandma) she gave it to us at Thanksgiving and the topiaries are all last year's Target. (The red rose wood tree is back this year.)And here is our version of The Lettered Cottage's old wonderwall. You can see we also copied Layla's beachy flag and decided Patriotic and Christmas decor can co-exist nicely.

So, this is our first attempt at photographing and blogging about our decor. Let us know what you think and give us any ideas you might have.

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Welcome to my blog. I have been attempting some DIY and home improvement projects the last year since we bought our first home and I've been immensely aided by some awesome bloggers and their own blogs. I've benefited from tutorials, before and after photos, and even just some awesome mood boards/inspiration files that have been posted. We have a family blog and now I have decided to branch out and create our own blog to chronicle our adventures in fixing up our home.

Some background info: we live in a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona. However, we are both from southern California and I think our tastes and style reflects that a bit. We have been married 7 years and have 4 small children, all boys and 2 of those are identical twins. (That could be a whole other blog....) I work as an optometrist and my wife stays home with the kids. We love our home, but admit it is a huge work in progress, even though it is only 6 years old. (Whoever built this home in 2005 must have had no money for upgrades, or really nasty taste. Or both.

I thought I'd post a to do list to start with and we'll start making our way through this bad boy. Some projects are partially or all the way completed, but I'll cross them off as I get a blog entry done about them.

In no certain order:

1. Lighting in front room

2. Paint trim and doors downstairs

3. Caulk and paint crown molding in family room

4. Finish wood flooring in family room

5. Refinish banister

6. Paint kitchen island

7. Build Farmhouse table

8. Build Barndoor inspired Headboard

9. Refinish Hope Chest

10. Malibu lights

11. Garden area

12. Build/find a Potting bench

13. DIY framing

14. Gallery wall up stairway

15. Acquire and refinish cheap piano

16. Re-upholster sectional sofa???(Not sure about this one.)

17. Big boys' room

18. Twins' room

19. Toy room

20. Master bedroom/bathroom

21. Trash cupboard

There's more, I just can't think right now.

Here are some projects that I've completed, that I'll be posting about soon:

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We are quite possibly the luckiest people in the world. We have four beautiful boys 8, 6 and twin 4 year olds. We finally got our little Princess this year! We have a house we love to fix up. And we love sharing it here with you!